


relativity

by moonrise31



Series: once, twice, and again until it's over [6]
Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/F, also jjirit jjirit, brand new girl brand new me, get ready for some hardcore ot9 because this is my true form
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-03-28 03:25:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13895244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonrise31/pseuds/moonrise31
Summary: In which nine girls work through the intricacies of high school (as per usual), and on the side, wrestle with something a little more out of this world.





	1. The History Channel

In retrospect, maybe Chaeyoung shouldn't have consumed that last can of Red Bull.

She couldn't be blamed, though -- she and Dahyun had been on a roll in the library, laying out the entirety of their next start-up business idea. "It'll work out this time," Dahyun had said. "The eighth time's the charm."

And Chaeyoung had agreed; but maybe it had been the remnants of her second Red Bull talking.

In either case, they'd had to call it quits around midnight, as Dahyun felt guilty for making her driver wait any longer. So Chaeyoung swept up her laptop, and Dahyun gathered the papers scattered across the two tables they'd pushed together in the study room, before swiping an eraser through the diagrams they'd hastily scribbled onto the whiteboard during their after-school hours of epiphany.

"Next time," Chaeyoung said through a yawn as they made their way down the school's grand staircase, "we should consider getting hit with brilliant ideas a little closer to the weekend, instead of on a school night."

"I don't want to hear any complaints from you," Dahyun hummed, nodding her head to the empty echo of their footsteps against the marble floor of the atrociously enormous entrance hall. "You're the prodigy who skipped a grade and actually got into this school on a scholarship instead of just having your parents pay your way in like the rest of us."

Chaeyoung snorted. "It was an art scholarship, and my parents funded it, so I'm not sure it counts."

"It's the thought," Dahyun assured her.

"Whatever." Chaeyoung rolled her eyes. "The school board's just trying to make their education program more 'diverse'." She shoved her hands into her blazer pockets. "Whatever that means. The most diverse this student body has gotten is a handful of Japanese transfer students and Tzuyu."

"Educate me about social justice another night, please," Dahyun laughed. They reached the double doors, and Dahyun shoved one open with some effort. "I guess the doormen already went home."

" _We_ should also be home," Chaeyoung said.

"I see him!" Dahyun waved at the limo pulled up at the bottom of the front steps. "I really need to get Dad to give him a raise."

"When our business takes off, you can give him the raise yourself," Chaeyoung told her, only half-joking. She covered another yawn with the hand not gripping her backpack strap, turning to the side slightly as she did so. She paused, blinking the watery sleep from her eyes as she spotted a flash of their school blazer disappearing around the far corner of the building, just beyond the southwest fountain.

It must have been the Red Bull, was what Chaeyoung thought, until Dahyun said, "Hey, did you see that?"

"Maybe," said Chaeyoung.

"Didn't he look a little..." Dahyun paused, searching for the right adjective. "Blue, to you?"

"More blue than I'd expect," Chaeyoung agreed. "We must have had way too much caffeine if we both hallucinated the same thing at the same time."

"You're right," said Dahyun, opening the back door to the limo. She bowed, waving Chaeyoung inside with a grand sweep of her arm. "After you."

Chaeyoung ducked in, sliding across soft leather, and promptly fell asleep on Dahyun's shoulder as soon as the limo passed smoothly through the iron front gates.

-

"You got a text," Nayeon announced, swiping Jihyo's phone up from the top of the dresser. "Oh, it's Mina. She says -- "

"Give me that." Jihyo made a grab for the phone, missing by a hair because Nayeon managed to take a step back just in time. The older girl's cackling was cut short when she tripped over a misplaced high heel, sending her crashing backwards onto the floor. Jihyo wasted no time in diving after her, rescuing her phone and glancing down at the message notification.

"Wow," Nayeon drawled from her spot on the carpet. "Do you get that red from every text you get? Or is it just a Mina thing?"

Jihyo nudged her roommate's leg with her toe. "Shut up. She's just teasing me about some dumb pictures of me that she took. That's all."

"Sure," Nayeon snickered as she peeked over Jihyo's shoulder. Jihyo jumped, wondering how in the world the older girl had gotten up so fast. "I'm sure Mina takes pictures of _all_ her friends. Who are, of course, just friends, and _that's all_."

"Don't you have to go be gross with Sana or something?" Jihyo grumbled, stepping away so that Nayeon's annoying breath was no longer blowing against her ear and making it stupidly warm. 

"It's not like we have to be together every second of the day," Nayeon said reasonably. "So don't blame me for just trying to hang out with my favorite roommate."

"You have only one roommate," Jihyo deadpanned, tucking her phone into the pocket of her blazer. "But if you keep being annoying, you soon won't have any." She paused, and then added sweetly, " _Unnie_."

"Kids these days," Nayeon sighed with a shake of her head, grabbing her bag and swinging it over her shoulder before following Jihyo out the door. "No respect at all."

-

"Since when did you use so many emojis?"

Mina screamed, dropping her phone and almost ramming her shoulder into Sana's chin. "Unnie! Don't do that."

Sana gave her a well-used pout. "It's not my fault you were smiling too much to even hear me when I asked you a question."

Mina felt her cheeks color. "I wasn't smiling."

"You were," said Sana, leaning closer as her face split into a grin. "Who's the lucky girl?" She held up her hands. "Or guy. I won't judge."

Mina busied herself with picking up her phone and making sure her passcode was still active (Sana, she'd discovered early on in their joint adventure as roommates, was a disturbingly talented pickpocket, in addition to possessing prodigious phone passcode disabling abilities). "It was just Jihyo. We have a class together today, so I was just checking on the assignment."

Sana snickered. "Minari, that was the lamest excuse I've ever heard, and that's coming from someone whose best friend regularly rejects her for jokbal."

Mina sighed. "Sometimes I wonder why you didn't just stay roommates with Momo-unnie."

"Prefects get single rooms," Sana cheerfully reminded her before wrapping her in a wholesome hug. "So you're just stuck with me until I graduate." 

"Wonderful." Mina hid a smile. "You said you wanted to ask me a question?"

"Oh yeah!" Sana released Mina and grinned. "You know Dahyun, right?"

Mina blinked. "The first-year you pour all your embarrassing affection on when Nayeon-unnie isn't paying enough attention to you?"

Sana's grin widens. "Hey, it works."

Mina bit back an "I know," because it's on those nights that she and Nayeon switch rooms, so at least she got to spend those evenings with Jihyo and complain about how insufferably adorable their roommates were together when they weren't being vastly inappropriate. "What about Dahyun, then?"

"She said she has something important to talk about," Sana said. "And to bring anyone I think might be willing to listen. So do you want to come? After classes today, in the backroom of the library."

"Oh." Mina thought for a few moments before shrugging. "Okay, sure. I'll ask Jihyo if she wants to come, too."

Sana winked at her. "Of course you will."

Mina sighed, her reddened cheeks puffing out with her loud exhale.

-

"Woah." Chaeyoung glanced around the room. "I didn't know you knew this many people."

"It wasn't me," Dahyun admitted. "Sana-unnie got most of them." She turned to the girl in question. "So how do _you_ know all these people, anyway?"

"Oh." Sana brightened, sitting up as she pointed to each acquaintance. "I know Nayeonnie because she likes to hold my hand in her pocket."

"That's actually kind of cute," Jihyo murmured, leaning close so her breath warmed Mina's ear. Mina only trusted herself to smile.

"Jeongyeon is in my gym class with Momo," Sana continued. 

Jeongyeon shrugged. "I really don't know why I'm here. Sana barely gave us time to change after class before she dragged us out of the locker rooms."

"Just smile and nod," Momo suggested easily. "It works for me ninety-five percent of the time." 

Sana pointed at the other first-year in the back corner. "I met Tzuyu in detention a few weeks ago, and now she tutors me for Mandarin class."

Chaeyoung raised her eyebrows. "Wait, you were in detention?"

"I threatened to push someone out the window," Tzuyu explained. And then, eyes still wide and tone still flat and dry like a desert plain, she added, "No one knew that I was just joking."

" _Right_." Sana quickly clapped her hands together. "Anyway, this is Mina, my roommate, and that's Jihyo, the person she wishes would be her roommate instead."

Jihyo suddenly forgot how to breathe, and Mina gave Sana a short whine before gently patting Jihyo's back to soothe her abrupt coughing fit.

"Okay," said Dahyun brightly. "Well, that makes nine in total here, then. So for those of you who don't know us, I'm Kim Dahyun, first-year, and this is Son Chaeyoung, also a first-year."

Chaeyoung raised a hand. "Hi." She cleared her throat. "You guys are probably wondering why we -- er, Sana-unnie -- brought you all here today."

"The thought may have crossed my mind one or two dozen times as we were forced to climb three flights of stairs right after running ten kilometers in class," Jeongyeon confirmed.

Dahyun cleared her throat. "Well, wonder no longer." She met the curious gaze of every girl in the room, lowering her voice as she told them, "Last week, Chaeyoung and I saw something very...intriguing on campus, very late one night."

"We thought we were just seeing things," Chaeyoung agreed. "But then we did some research, and we have good reason to believe that what we saw that night was real."

"Well?" Nayeon asked after a few seconds of dramatic pause. "What'd you see?"

Dahyun turned and slapped a photo on the whiteboard behind her. Chaeyoung quickly followed up with two pieces of tape hastily stuck across the opposite corners. They both turned around again, arms crossed and smiles smug.

Jihyo blinked. "That's a student. From our school?"

"I see him in the hall sometimes," Momo agreed.

"Yes, he's a student," Chaeyoung said. "But he's not exactly who you think he is."

Jeongyeon crossed her arms. "Who is he, then?" 

Dahyun's grin widened. "An alien."


	2. High School Musical

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm honestly surprised at the positive reception for this fic?? Thanks so much guys you make me softer than mihyo does and that's saying quite a lot

" _What_?" Is what Jeongyeon finally deadpanned into the stunned silence.

Tzuyu, meanwhile, turned directly to Chaeyoung. "You can't be serious."

"Woah, aliens?" Momo whispered, wide-eyed.

"I think we'll need some more evidence," Jihyo carefully suggested. "He looks pretty _human_ in the picture you have there."

Dahyun leaned closer to Chaeyoung's ear, murmuring out of one side of her mouth, "I told you they wouldn't take it well." Then she straightened, bright smile slipping back into place. "Of course. First, have you considered his name?"

"You didn't tell us his name," Nayeon reminded them.

"Right." Chaeyoung picked up a marker from the tray running underneath the whiteboard and read each syllable as she wrote with steady, emphatic strokes. "Han. Ah. Dul."

"Say it faster," Dahyun instructed after a few moments of skeptical quiet.

"Han Ahdul. Han ah dul. Hanahdul. Hanadul--" Sana stopped with a gasp.

"Three?" Momo offered weakly.

"Okay, so he has a weird name." Jeongyeon crossed her arms. "Unfortunate, but not extraterrestrial."

"It's true," Nayeon piped up. "Did you guys know that Jeongyeon's real name is actually -- " Sana ducked just in time, and Jeongyeon's balled up sweater landed squarely in the eldest girl's face. 

"Anyway," Jihyo continued, ignoring her roommate's indignant squeal (and how Sana leaned over _really_ close to Nayeon's face to shush her). "If the name is all the evidence you have, I think you'll see why we're having a problem understanding."

Chaeyoung sighed. "Okay, look. We'll spell it out for you." She flipped open the laptop sitting on the table in front of her, plugging in the proper cable so that the presentation slide on her screen was projected onto the whiteboard. "May 15th of last year. Han Ahdul transfers here as part of the international student program."

"May 18th," Dahyun continued. "just three days later. Third-year Kang Seulgi gets food poisoning."

"She always eats a lot, though," Nayeon pointed out. "It wouldn't have been the first time she's gotten sick from food."

Chaeyoung raised a finger. "Yes, but that's the thing." She pointed at the whiteboard, which now displayed a slightly blurry photo of some printed files. "The nurse's records say that Kang Seulgi got food poisoning, but the description goes on to note that the tests actually came back negative, and they couldn't figure out what was really wrong with her. She got better the next day anyway, so no one bothered to investigate further."

"How did you get the nurse's records, exactly?" Jeongyeon asked.

"Also worth noting," Dahyun said quickly, "is that Kang Seulgi was one of the prefects, and was tasked with showing Han Ahdul around school on his first day."

"Fast forward to October 30th," Chaeyoung continued, flipping to the next slide. "The school internet crashes, and all cell service and data gets cut off for almost twelve hours. No one can get onto their Instagram accounts. Chaos ensues."

"It _was_ pretty bad," Nayeon agreed.

"You shouldn't be on your phone during class, anyway," Tzuyu told her; after a few moments of Chaeyoung's contorted facial expressions and head jerks, she added reluctantly, "unnie."

Dahyun cleared her throat, and Chaeyoung hit the space bar to play the video now on the screen. "Here's the security camera footage caught our suspect hanging around the hall outside of the IT room the night before it happened, hours after curfew. Also note the peculiar blue glow he seems to have around him."

"The 'suspect'?" Sana giggled. "Didn't know you were into the crime drama stuff, Dahyunnie."

"I'm not," Dahyun shot back hotly.

Jihyo squinted at the grainy video clip. "That blue could just be the lighting, right?"

"Yeah," said Jeongyeon, although her frown deepened as she crossed her arms a little more tightly.

"And finally." Chaeyoung flicked to the last slide in their arsenal. "December 11th. Third-year Kim Jisoo suddenly collapses from exhaustion _before_ gym class. Several of the students who were standing nearby have made no secret of her saying repeatedly that it felt like her 'heart was shaking' out of her chest."

"And Han Ahdul was in the same gym class," Mina guessed.

"He was even pushing a cart full of basketball equipment with her just before she dropped," Dahyun confirmed. 

"Well, Jisoo's weird enough to be an alien," Nayeon admitted. "I guess it would make sense for them to be friends."

Jeongyeon raised her eyebrows. "So you're actually buying into this?"

"Not at all," Nayeon said quickly, although Sana shot her a knowing look.

"Why not?" Momo responded a beat later. She blinked when she realized eight pairs of eyes were suddenly focused on her, and then shrugged. "I mean, at the very least, something not normal is going on here, right?"

"It's just a bunch of coincidences," Jihyo said, shifting in her seat and only stilling when her elbow brushed against Mina's. "I would hardly call any of the evidence substantial."

Chaeyoung glanced around the room once before letting out a heavy sigh. "Yeah, you're probably right." She shut her laptop, suddenly casting the room in a harsh glow from the empty blue screen now behind her. "Sorry to bother all of you."

"Hey, Chaeng, wait -- " Dahyun stopped when the younger girl shook her head slightly.

"It's a lot to take in," Sana finally offered, breaking the silence. "Maybe we all just need to think on it a little more?"

"Right." Dahyun nodded. "Well, thanks to all of you for coming, regardless."

One by one, the other girls filed out of the room, giving smiles and small waves and quiet "see you around"s. Dahyun returned each one, and Chaeyoung simply nodded while staring at her laptop lid decorated with stars inked in silver Sharpie.

"I believe you."

Chaeyoung's head snapped up. Dahyun's face split into a wide grin. "Thanks, Tzuyu."

Tzuyu shrugged. "I'm not sure how much it matters, though. What do you plan to do about any of this, anyway?"

"That does seem to be our constant problem," Chaeyoung said wryly, but she stood a little straighter. "We'll figure something out."

-

Dahyun didn't remember her alarm ringing any time previously, but the high-pitched blare of Sana's aegyo -- which the older girl had insisted on recording on Dahyun's phone, _clearly_ against Dahyun's will -- was an unfortunate indication that this was already the fourth time her alarm had gone off that morning. Dahyun scrambled to get out of bed, but her legs made a tangled mess with her blankets instead. She rolled off the edge a moment later, thudding onto the floor amidst a loud string of curses.

Twenty minutes later, Dahyun was in the backseat of the Kim family limo, Chaeyoung sliding in next to her and tactfully making no comment about how Dahyun had clearly not had enough time to brush her hair that morning.

And apparently it was just going to be one of those days, because Dahyun didn't realize that she'd forgotten her math textbook on her bedroom desk until she couldn't find it after a mad search through the various papers and other miscellaneous school supplies littering the bottom of her locker. But now she was late for the first bell and she really could just use some coffee right now and maybe -- 

She whipped around the corner and promptly crashed into the other body rounding it from the other side.

"Woah, hey there." Warm hands steadied her, and suddenly Dahyun was looking up at Momo's cheerful grin. "Oh, Kim Dahyun, right? I'm Momo, Sana's friend."

"I know," said Dahyun, because who _doesn't_ know every single prefect in the entire school building. And then, because her brain was frazzled from her lack of hairbrushing and the general rush of not knowing what in the world she'd been trying to do in the hour since she'd been rudely awakened, she blurted, "Shouldn't you be in class?"

"I could say the same to you," Momo answered easily, dropping her hands now that Dahyun didn't seem in so much danger of falling over into the wall they were standing next to. "As for me, I have to patrol the hallways until after the second bell and write up any students who're late."

"Yeah. Prefect duties. Right." Dahyun nodded. "Sorry for running into you. My class is just down the hall," she gave her best grin, "so don't write me up, please?"

Momo laughed. "You got it. See you later, then."

Dahyun smiled back and nodded before dashing off to history class, sliding into her seat just before the second bell. 

It didn't occur to her that Momo actually meant "sooner" rather than "later" until she sat in the cafeteria during lunch period, suddenly squished between Chaeyoung and Tzuyu because there were six other girls trying to make room around a table that was clearly only designed to seat maybe eight students total.

"How did you even find us?" Dahyun couldn't help asking once Mina quietly took her place between Nayeon and Jihyo.

"A sixth sense, probably," Jeongyeon said as she neatly folded a paper napkin. Then she looked up. "You know, because aliens? Guys? Do you get it?"

"No," Nayeon deadpanned, and then suddenly reached out to grab Sana's wrist. "Not you." Sana grinned and resumed taking her seat on the older girl's lap.

"It was a _little_ funny," Chaeyoung admitted.

"Oh no," Jihyo groaned. "Now there are _two_ of them."

"Anyway." Nayeon cleared her throat. "I'm not saying we're all convinced about your conspiracy theory or anything. But you definitely have our attention."

"So whatever your plan is," Sana continued with bright eyes and an open smile, "you can count us in."

"Yes!" Dahyun jumped up, pumping her fist in the air. "That's the best thing I've heard all day."

Jeongyeon nudged Momo in the side, and the latter looked up from her kimbap. "Oh, right. Dahyun, no yelling in the cafeteria."

Chaeyoung, meanwhile, said nothing, gaze moving slowly from one face to the next around the entire table. Nayeon stared back at her curiously. "Did we break her?"

"Not at all," Dahyun reassured them with a wave of her hand. "That's Chaeng's thinking face. Not the kind that actually helps any of our plans get off the ground, of course, but the kind that makes her write mushy things like 'this is happiness'."

Chaeyoung snapped out of her daze in time to shove Dahyun in the shoulder, driving the other girl almost into Jeongyeon's lap. Jeongyeon jerked back, elbow bumping into Momo's. The ketchup packet Momo had been attempting to rip open flew out of her hands, arcing across the table towards Tzuyu as it left a trail of tomato paste in its wake. Tzuyu ducked to one side, accidentally shoving into Jihyo in the process. 

Mina had already evacuated her seat, so Jihyo flopped into the empty spot without knocking into anyone else. Somehow, though, Sana's flailing limbs set Nayeon off balance anyway, sending the two of them crashing to the ground.

After the screaming subsided, the lunch monitors scolded the entire table until Momo eventually placated them with a few responsible smiles and an empty promise to keep everyone in line. She then accordingly proceeded to not pay attention while Jeongyeon and Sana made faces at the retreating monitors' backs. 

(And Chaeyoung wouldn't ever admit it, but Dahyun was definitely right about what happiness might be like.)


	3. Whodunnit?

Chaeyoung still didn't know how having lunch together started to become a regular thing. Because it would always be odd, to put it frankly, that she suddenly knew all of these other students when she barely shared classes with even Dahyun or Tzuyu. 

And then, to make matters even more surreal, Nayeon approached the table one day and announced, "Okay, that Han Ahdul guy is _definitely_ an alien."

Jeongyeon looked up from her food and raised her eyebrows. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Because," Nayeon said with a careless shrug, waiting patiently for Sana to shift so she could sit on the younger girl's lap (a permanent solution to the eight-seat-table problem that Chaeyoung had to grudgingly thank them for). "I flirted with him," she paused for a good three seconds, "and it didn't work."

Jihyo almost choked on her drink, but Mina immediately reached over and began rubbing circles into her back. Jihyo wiped her mouth with a napkin before clearing her throat. "Believe it or not, Im Nayeon, not _everyone_ will fall for your unspeakable charm. In fact," she spared a glance at Sana resting her chin on Nayeon's shoulder, staring at the older girl with -- gross, were those actual _stars_ in her eyes? -- " _most_ people wouldn't."

"I tried so many times, too," Nayeon continued as if uninterrupted, throwing her hands up so fast she almost whacked Momo in the nose. "But he didn't even bat an eyelash."

"He didn't respond to me when I tried, either," Sana added with a pout. "It was basically like I was invisible."

"Of _course_ you tried too," Jeongyeon muttered into her rice. "What a couple of weirdos."

Momo leaned over the table slightly so she could make eye contact with the grumbling girl. "If you're just going to talk to your food, you could give it to me instead." 

Nayeon gave an exaggerated cough to regain the table's attention. "So in conclusion, if he was able to resist the _both_ of us," she threw an arm around Sana's shoulder and pulled her impossibly closer, "he's definitely an alien."

"They do have a point," said Dahyun. And then winced when Tzuyu gave her a look nothing short of withering. "What? I'm just saying. Sana-unnie's the most popular girl in school, and Nayeon-unnie is on a first-name basis with basically everyone. It'd be weird _not_ to have a crush on either of them at some point."

"Aw, Dahyunnie," Sana cooed, leaning across Chaeyoung so she could poke Dahyun in the cheek. "Are you saying that you've had a crush on me?"

"Okay," Chaeyoung dutifully cut in before Dahyun's bug-eyed gaping fish impression could get any more accurate. "So you guys believe us now when we say something about that guy is literally out of this world?"

"For the record," Momo said, slipping out of the pout she'd been using in a last-ditch attempt to relieve Jeongyeon of the rest of her lunch, "I was on your side from the beginning."

Tzuyu nodded emphatically. "Me too."

"Okay then, what now?" Jihyo said, crossing her arms. "So we think this guy's an alien. What do you want to do, and how are we going to do it?"

"We need definite proof," Chaeyoung decided. "Something that even the most stubborn skeptic wouldn't be able to deny."

Dahyun shook off the last of her Sana-induced shock in time to jump in. "That's right. This'll be a huge operation. Possibly dangerous. And," she paused to glance nervously at Momo, "probably after curfew."

"I won't say anything if you won't," the prefect airily promised.

"Great," said Dahyun, clapping her hands together. "So all we need now is...an actual plan."

"We could all try to think of something, and talk about it tomorrow," Jihyo offered. She glanced around the table. "So? Everyone in?"

Seven other voices chimed in (not counting Mina, because Mina didn't actually say anything out loud. 

But she did take Jihyo's hand under the table and give it a squeeze, and suddenly the entire cafeteria didn't seem even half as loud as the pounding in Jihyo's ears).

-

Jihyo and Mina shared the last class of the day, and neither had any extracurriculars to keep them from returning to Mina's dormitory room to start on homework. But when Mina unlocked the door and pushed it open, Nayeon was already lounging on one of the bean bags between the two beds. 

"Took you guys long enough," the eldest girl said, not taking her eyes off of her phone.

"I keep forgetting that you have Sana's key," Jihyo sighed as she dropped her backpack onto the carpet, the books inside thumping dully as they landed. "And how did you even know we were going to be here?"

"I can be observant sometimes," Nayeon scoffed. "You're never in our room before dinner, so," she finally glanced up to give Jihyo a knowing look, "there's really only one other place you could be."

Jihyo rolled her eyes. "Where's Sana-unnie, anyway?"

"Detention," Mina suddenly spoke up. "I don't think she'll make her way back for another hour or so."

"Right." Jihyo never quite understood why Sana _voluntarily_ sat in detention four or five times a week, but it was honestly one of the more normal things she'd known the older girl to do so far. "Unnie, don't bother us then. We're trying to do homework."

"Is that what the kids are calling it these days?" Nayeon asked smartly, and then promptly shifted to one side to dodge the pillow Jihyo hurled in her direction. "Shutting up now."

"Thank you," Jihyo huffed. She turned to Mina, mouth half-open and ready to suggest that they get started. But Mina had already pulled out her notes from earlier and was now looking them over, brow furrowed as her lips moved slightly, reading characters that were still a little foreign to her eyes. 

Jihyo stared for a few moments, jaw dropping just slightly. Then she cleared her throat and muttered under her breath.

Mina's head immediately jerked up. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"Nothing." Jihyo's face colored a deep shade of pink. "I didn't say anything."

"Really?" Nayeon piped up from the bean bag. "Because I'm pretty sure I heard, 'Fuck, that's cute', but I guess it could just be me."

Now Mina flushed, and Jihyo's anger burned red in her cheeks as she whipped around. "Im Nayeon, I will _end_ you."

Nayeon only snorted. "Okay, fine, I can tell when I'm not wanted." She got up, tucking her phone in her blazer as she tossed her hair over one shoulder. "If you'd rather act out an entire season of the drama I'm watching instead of just doing the real life, _obvious_ thing, it's your choice."

Jihyo huffed as the door swung closed. " _Thank_ you."

"Jihyo?"

And of course Jihyo had to turn and meet Mina's gaze. And she knew -- oh, she _definitely_ knew -- that Mina was thinking the exact same thing she was, feeling the same dangerous flutter deep inside her chest. Because Nayeon wasn't the most subtle person around, and Jihyo could admit at least to herself that the older girl was absolutely right. 

(They were just dancing around the issue like a couple of teenage characters in the middle of a worn out plot. Spewing dialogue copy-and-pasted from all the episodes previously, hesitating against absolutely nothing, and sporting heavy smiles before turning around to tear their own hair out alongside the despairing audience on the other side of the television screen.)

And yet, Jihyo could only push her tongue into working a shaky, "So, calculus?" past her lips.

Mina simply nodded, smile even softer than usual. And still let Jihyo press their shoulders together as the two of them sprawled on the carpet and began comparing answers.

-

The classroom door swung open, and Tzuyu turned from her spot at the teacher's desk to look at the latest detention arrival. Her eyebrows immediately rose. "Jeongyeon-unnie?"

"Oh." Jeongyeon stopped in her tracks. "Tzuyu? What are you doing here?"

Tzuyu shrugged. "Teacher Park told me to supervise the rest of this hour while he goes and figures out some important business."

"My theory," Sana spoke up from her spot in the front row, "is that he just picked whichever passing student happened to look the most intimidating."

"No wonder he didn't ask _you_ then," said Jeongyeon as she plopped into the desk next to Sana.

Sana stuck out her bottom lip at her classmate. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's hard to be intimidating when you already happen to be friends with everyone," Jeongyeon deadpanned. 

"I'm not friends with _everyone_ ," Sana scoffed. 

"You gave Im Jaebum a fist bump when he walked in late five minutes ago," Tzuyu reminded her.

"He's not 'everyone'," Sana shot back. 

Tzuyu held up a hand and began to count off names on her fingers. "Also Park Jinyoung, Kim Wonpil, Bang Chan..."

Jeongyeon twisted around to scan the back row of the classroom. "I wasn't aware we had this many people in detention in the first place."

"It's not like they're real delinquents or anything," Sana said. "There's only so much trouble you can get into at a fancy high-class private school like this one." Jeongyeon narrowed her eyes at Sana, but still had no idea if the other girl was being serious or not.

"We can hear you, you know," Jaebum called out lazily. And then bowed his head when Tzuyu shot him a glare.

Sana tilted her head at Jeongyeon. "So why are _you_ here?" 

Jeongyeon shrugged. "There was some fundraiser last night that I didn't feel like attending."

"Wait." Sana's eyes widened. "Do you mean the fundraiser for our _entire_ sports programming this coming year? Aren't you required to go since you're literally our star athlete?"

"But I didn't." Jeongyeon swept her arms in a grand gesture. "And so, here I am."

"That doesn't seem really responsible, unnie," Tzuyu interjected. 

"Yeah, well." Jeongyeon rolled her eyes. "There's a difference between being responsible and being practical. You can say I'm a 'star athlete', but if it's because I'm the best on a team for _croquet_?" She snorted. "We only have one competition every year, and it has to be national because that's the only way to have more than two teams competing at the same time."

"Well," said Sana, grinning gently, " _I_ still think it's important."

Tzuyu shifted slightly in the teacher's chair to break the sudden quiet.

Jeongyeon abruptly crossed her arms and turned away from Sana's gaze, tongue clicking against her teeth. "Whatever."

The second hand of the wall clock ticked forward one more step. The silence broke under the sudden rush of chairs scraping against the expensive cherry wood floorboards. Someone -- Wonpil, probably -- let out a whoop before the crowd of boys squeezed through the aisle between Jeongyeon and Sana's desks, only pausing to duck their heads quickly at Tzuyu before speeding out the door.

"Ready to go?" Sana chirped, already out of her seat. Jeongyeon nodded, getting up as Tzuyu also slipped out from behind the teacher's desk. Sana pulled the two towards her, hooking their elbows with hers as they exited the classroom. "What're your plans for the rest of the night?"

"Homework," Tzuyu answered first. "And also, think of ideas to share tomorrow."

Jeongyeon sighed, running her free hand through her hair. "So you two really buy into all that alien stuff, huh?"

"Don't think of it like we're actually hunting down an alien," Sana suggested. "Even if he ends up being just a regular guy that has weird things happening around him all the time -- "

"Charming," said Jeongyeon.

"-- at least we can say that we made some new friends in the end, right?" Sana smiled brightly. When neither Jeongyeon nor Tzuyu responded, she tugged the both of them even closer. "I mean _us_. All of us. _Friends_." She dragged out the last word like the beginnings of a song.

"Right, right, okay, you can let go now." Jeongyeon shrugged off Sana's embrace and ignored the other girl's chuckles. They'd made it back to the dormitory wing, but still had to pass by the boys' hallway before their own rooms. 

The lights above flickered once, twice.

Sana stopped in her tracks, immediately pulling Tzuyu close. Jeongyeon stepped in front of them, arm outstretched but not quite sure what she was protecting against. Still, she swore the air around them slipped a few degrees cooler.

Then the flickering stopped, and the hallway was once again bathed in steady light.

"That was strange," said Tzuyu after a moment.

"Yeah," Sana said, hand still firmly grasping Tzuyu's. "Hey, where are you going?"

Jeongyeon was already ten steps down further the hall. "There's an electric panel around the corner," she said over her shoulder. "I just want to check and make sure no one was messing with it."

"We can just ask Chaeyoung to check the security cameras," Tzuyu reminded Jeongyeon even as she and Sana began to jog after her. "I'm not sure how they got any of the footage from last time, but I _am_ sure they can do it again."

Jeongyeon had already rounded the corner. "Hey!" They heard her yell. "Hey, you! Stop right -- "

By the time Sana and Tzuyu caught up, Jeongyeon was standing alone in front of the opened electric panel, fists clenched at her sides.

"Did you see someone?" Sana asked quietly, stepping up beside her.

"Yeah," Jeongyeon said through gritted teeth.

Tzuyu gave the panel a onceover, scanning the mess of wires and dials. Nothing _seemed_ out of place, but she was definitely not qualified to issue the final verdict. She turned back to Jeongyeon. "Was it him, unnie?"

Jeongyeon's resigned sigh was more than enough of an answer.

"So I guess the new question is," said Sana, "what did he just do?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you are also excited about the april 9th comeback you should totally hit me up on twitter (@moonrise31) and then we can be excited together


	4. Big Brother

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait; hope you guys haven't forgotten what's happened because I almost did

The next time Dahyun ran into Momo in the hallway, she wasn't the one not paying attention to where she was going. And apparently their near collision didn’t even bring Momo’s head down from the clouds, her gaze out of focus until Dahyun had snapped her fingers in front of the prefect’s nose several times. 

Momo finally blinked. “Oh, hi. Didn’t see you there.”

With great difficulty, Dahyun suppressed her urge to make a meme reference and settled for a cautious smile instead. “Unnie, are you feeling okay?” 

"Yeah." Momo ran a hand through her hair, glancing off to the side and blinking a few times. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Dahyun waited a beat, then two, before tentatively reaching out and placing a hand on Momo's shoulder. Because she definitely remembered the meeting the nine of them had held after school the day before to brainstorm, and how it was unanimously decided that Momo would be the best choice to execute the next part of their plan. "You know, unnie, you don't have to do anything you don't want to."

"But I already said I would," Momo sighed, lower lip sticking out a little. 

"Prefects don't pout," Dahyun huffed, pulling her hand back and crossing her arms over her chest instead. "It's really okay though, unnie. I mean, _because_ you're a prefect, it'd be really bad for you if someone found out you're basically stalking our target."

Momo shook her head, tucking her hands into her blazer pockets. "It makes the most sense for it to be me. We're in the same classes and everything."

"So are Sana-unnie and Nayeon-unnie," Dahyun reminded her. "Jeongyeon-unnie too."

Momo sighed. "Yeah, but it'd be weirder if they suddenly started talking to him. At least I have a better reason, being prefect and everything. I'm expected to check in on students and stuff like that."

Dahyun nodded. "Okay, unnie. But you do know you don't have to do this if you don't want to, right? It's not your job, or homework, or anything."

Momo cracked a smile. "Yeah, I know. Thanks." She threw an arm around Dahyun's shoulders, turning to say something more.

Dahyun tilted her head slightly when Momo didn't speak for a few seconds. "Unnie?"

Momo blinked slowly, and then reached up with her free hand to give the younger girl a solid poke in the cheek. "Has anyone every told you that your face looks like tofu?" Dahyun rolled her eyes and tried to pull away, but Momo's hold remained firm as the older girl continued to steadily prod at her. "Seriously, how did you match the consistency _exactly_?"

"Is this the thanks I get for hyping you up?" Dahyun groaned. "Unnie, _please_ , I have to go to class."

Momo laughed, and released Dahyun to dash into her lecture room with seconds to spare. 

-

Tzuyu didn't expect to see anyone else on the rooftop. But honestly, if she _were_ to expect someone else, it would definitely be Myoui Mina.

Tzuyu hadn't really talked much with the older girl despite the both of them being in the foreign exchange student program, meaning they were required to meet outside of classes every Tuesday -- something about a space where they could all bond and make the whole experience of living in an entirely new country at least a little bit easier. Which was a great idea in practice, and Sana had definitely taken Tzuyu under her wing. But Mina was more quiet than Tzuyu was, which made it difficult to engage in anything beyond a few sentences of conversation even when Sana made the two of them sit next to each other for an entire session.

What Tzuyu did know of Mina, though, fit nicely with the image the other girl now painted against the sky hanging above the rooftop. Jackson called it "brooding", but she wasn't sure exactly how much he meant it if Sana hadn't felt bothered enough to actually punch him for the comment (the older Japanese girl definitely made it seem like she floated through life on a fluffy pink cloud spewing glitter and butterflies, but Tzuyu quickly recognized the steely flash in Sana's gaze on the rare occasion there was something to protect).

"Hey."

Mina's greeting almost got lost in the breeze. Tzuyu, though, knew a thing or two about wanting to be heard, and only hesitated for a split second before stepping up to join Mina by the railing. "Hi, unnie. What're you doing here?"

Mina shrugged. "It's quiet, so I like to just come up and think sometimes."

"I'm surprised we didn't run into each other before, then," said Tzuyu, clasping her hands in front of her. She shifted, the scrape of her shoes against the concrete rooftop louder than either of them would probably ever be.

Mina, meanwhile, crossed her arms and leaned her elbows against the railing. "Do you come up here a lot?"

"I like to look over the city," Tzuyu admitted before she could register the rest of the words already slipping out of her mouth. "It's almost like I can see Taiwan, if I squint hard enough."

Mina stayed silent. Tzuyu ducked her head down to hide her quickly flushing cheeks, silently berating herself for voicing what was a silly sentiment at best -- and certainly one she'd never planned on ever acknowledging it out loud. She shifted again, more than ready to make a hasty exit. 

"I think Japan might be blocking your view," Mina said. "So, sorry about that."

Tzuyu's head snapped up, eyes wide.

Mina giggled, then. And Tzuyu felt her own lips twitch into a cautious smile.

-

Nayeon looked up as the door to her room swung open. "Back already?"

"Yeah." Sana wasted no time in flopping onto Nayeon's bed, rolling onto her stomach before the mattress could finish dipping from the added weight. "I didn't feel like sitting in detention today."

"I don't blame you," Nayeon said reasonably, lifting an arm to create space for her girlfriend. "Are you feeling alright?"

Sana hummed, sitting up and scooting over so she could tuck herself against Nayeon's side. "Just tired. It's exhausting being _on_ all the time, you know?"

“I could turn you on another way,” Nayeon suggested. And then laughed when Sana only groaned and buried her face into the crook of the older girl’s neck. “I know, I know.” She ran a tender hand through Sana’s hair. “We can just stay like this for a while.”

"Is Jihyo going to be back soon?" Sana murmured, her lashes tickling Nayeon's skin as her eyelids fluttered shut.

"I asked if she could switch with you for tonight," Nayeon said, hand now tracing gentle circles along Sana's upper arm. "I thought we could cuddle and watch a movie instead of doing the biology homework due tomorrow."

The arm Sana had thrown across Nayeon's waist curled even closer at the suggestion. "You can pick," Sana hummed a yawn into Nayeon's shoulder, "the movie."

"Okay," said Nayeon. Her laptop was within arm's reach, the movie already pulled up on the screen. She hit play, and then clicked the volume button until the dialogue faded to a gentle buzz -- she'd made Sana watch this film with her at least twice before, and the younger girl had already sunk into a solid warm weight on top of her, anyway.

And in her defense, Nayeon did try her very best to watch until the end, heavy-lidded eyes barely keeping up with the characters moving across the screen. Still, her most valiant efforts couldn't stop her from dozing off and making the both of them miss dinner.

(The next morning, Jihyo had absolutely no qualms about snapping a few blackmail photos of the two of them _still_ deep asleep and _still_ in yesterday's uniform, Nayeon with her mouth hanging wide open in the most unattractive way possible, and a wet spot seeping into her blazer pocket from Sana drooling on her the entire night.

Still, watching Sana chase Jihyo around the room in a devious effort to expose the younger girl to her horrible morning breath made the lunchtime cram to finish their biology homework that much more worth it.)

-

"Okay, okay, have you heard of this one?" Jeongyeon paused, waiting until Chaeyoung looked up from the screen to watch her expectantly. "What did the ocean say to the beach?"

Chaeyoung shrugged. "What?"

"Nothing." Jeongyeon grinned. "It just waved."

"Oh, that's a _good_ one!" Chaeyoung held up her hand for a high-five. 

It wasn't until after their resounding clap of success that they heard Jihyo groaning in the corner. "I can't believe you two are getting along _this_ well."

Jeongyeon smirked. "Hey, admit it. You like bad puns just as much as everyone else secretly does."

"Nayeon-unnie might," said Jihyo crossly, "but I certainly don't."

"Yes you do," Jeongyeon insisted, leaning over so she could jab Jihyo's side. "Just admit it!"

" _So_ ," Jihyo said loudly, standing up and very pointedly walking over to sit on Chaeyoung's other side. "How exactly have you been able to get all this security footage?"

"Magic," said Chaeyoung, focused on scrubbing through the recording of the hallway Jeongyeon, Sana, and Tzuyu had been in prior to the momentary blackout a few days before. "But mostly, banking on the fact that this super rich private school is still run by people old enough to somehow not think they need to beef up their digital security."

"That _does_ sound like magic." Jihyo squinted at the other tabs Chaeyoung had pulled up on her screen. The titles were mostly technical jargon, but -- "Hey, can I see your mouse for a second?"

"Uh, sure," said Chaeyoung, although Jihyo had already taken over the touchpad and clicked on the tab of interest. "Oh, wait, that's not -- "

" 'Kind of but not soft'," Jihyo read the blog title. "I didn't know you had a tumblr account."

"Ooh." Jeongyeon suddenly popped up over Chaeyoung's other shoulder. "Very hipster. And I like the aesthetic. Is it space themed?"

Chaeyoung coughed loudly as she brushed Jihyo's hand aside and closed the window. 'Let's focus on the task at hand, okay?"

"Okay," Jihyo agreed mildly, a smile still warming her voice as she redirected her attention to the footage. "So there he is, doing something with the electric panel. Can you tell what, exactly?"

Chaeyoung shook her head. "The quality isn't good enough for me to zoom in that closely." She started the clip again. "Alright, that's him leaving just as Jeongyeon-unnie rounds the corner."

Jeongyeon huffed and crossed her arms. "Something is definitely off about him."

"Who's wholeheartedly buying into the alien theory now?" Jihyo said smugly, and then ducked her way out of Jeongyeon's attempted forehead flick. She straightened again. "Can you see where he went after?"

"Already on it." Chaeyoung flipped through various sources until she found him stepping into view of the camera outside of the boys' dormitory. "Looks like he just went back to his room."

Jihyo frowned thoughtfully. "He doesn't have a roommate, does he?"

"Momo already checked," said Jeongyeon, eyes remaining glued to the screen. "She said he has a single room, since he transferred here so late last year."

Chaeyoung fast forwarded through the recordings until she spotted movement from the dormitory hall camera once more. "There he is. But it's..." She glanced at the timestamp in the corner. "One in the morning. Definitely past curfew on a school night."

"And he just..." Jihyo trailed off as Chaeyoung flipped rapidly through shot after shot before catching him slipping past the entrance hall camera. "He leaves campus?"

"Yup." Chaeyoung switched to the cameras monitoring the school grounds. "It looks like he goes into the forest beyond the south gate. And then we lose track of him." She frowned. "Actually, I wonder if that's where he was going when Dahyun-unnie and I saw him that first time."

"It was definitely late enough," Jeongyeon agreed. "And on a school night too, right?"

"Yeah. It was a Monday..." Chaeyoung glanced at the date. "This was also a Monday."

"See if he does the same thing every Monday," Jihyo suggested. "And check the other days around this time."

The three sat in tense silence as Chaeyoung continued to scrub through footage from prior weeks. After a few minutes, Jeongyeon sat back and closed her eyes. "So he goes off into the woods every Monday night, at one in the morning."

"Two minutes past one, specifically," said Chaeyoung. "And technically it would be Tuesday morning."

"Well," Jihyo said grimly, "seems like there's only one way to find out what he's doing out there."

Jeongyeon let out a bark of a laugh. "And here I thought getting detention was going to be the weirdest part of my high school career."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple more chapters of this, I'm thinking. I'll try to pace the releases with a couple of oneshots that I've been mulling over for a while now. 
> 
> Thanks for reading :D


	5. Star Trek

"What time is it?" Jihyo asked, barely forcing the question out through the enormous yawn pulling at her jaw.

"Early," Mina answered from the other side of the library study table. She flipped another page of her textbook, hand over her mouth as she covered a small yawn of her own.

Jihyo narrowed her eyes. "That's what you said the last time I asked, and I'm pretty sure at least three hours have passed since then." Mina only shrugged, so Jihyo rolled her eyes and bent down to feel for where her phone had slipped into her backpack. She unlocked her screen and stared at the time.

"Your silence must mean that it is, in fact, early," said Mina after a few moments, an unmistakable smirk in her voice.

Jihyo glared at the other girl. "It's past midnight, Myoui, and we have class at seven. We're _definitely_ done studying for the night."

"Okay." Mina shut her book. "I was starting to answer all the English questions in Korean, so maybe now is a good time to stop, anyway."

"I _am_ glad you made us start studying a week before the exam," Jihyo admitted as the two of them shuffled out of the library and began making their way back to their rooms. "If I'd waited until the night before, there's no way I would've been awake for the actual test."

Mina scoffed. "As if you'd ever procrastinate."

Jihyo hummed, declining to mention that she'd previously let Nayeon influence her study habits more than she should have, until Mina transferred to their school. Suddenly, Jihyo had felt a need to come up with excuses to get to know the other girl better, and, well -- study groups were a perfectly normal thing to suggest, right? 

"Hey." Mina stopped at one of the floor-to-ceiling windows, hand slipping into Jihyo's with ease. She tugged until Jihyo also turned to look outside. "Isn't that Han Ahdul?"

Jihyo's eyes widened. "Right, today's Monday." 

When Jihyo, Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung had discovered their target's weekly late night schedule, the group had unanimously voted to tail him into the forest at the next available opportunity. Unfortunately, the third-years had an exam bright and early on Tuesday, and one glare from Tzuyu was all it took for even Nayeon to relent and promise to study on Monday night instead, pushing their joint endeavor to at least a week later.

But now, Mina turned to face Jihyo, a spark of something close to excitement twinkling in her eyes -- like a child ready to ride the tallest rollercoaster in the amusement park. "Maybe we should go check." 

And her smile wasn't even that large -- barely there, even -- but Jihyo couldn't have said no even if her life depended on it.

"Didn't take you for a risk taker," Jihyo huffed as the two of them dashed down the rest of the hallway and headed for the staircase.

"I'm allowed to have fun sometimes," Mina answered readily. "Worry more about that after we've figured out how we're going to follow him if he heads for the woods."

One perk of attending a rich private school was that the door hinges were always well-oiled, so the two of them had no problem slipping soundlessly out of the main building and catching a flash of Han Ahdul rounding the corner. Mina paused at the entrance, and then slipped off her backpack. She placed it behind a pillar before rushing quietly down the steps. Jihyo quickly shrugged off her own bag as well before following Mina onto the well-kept lawn. 

Only a few seconds later, they rounded the same corner. Mina reached behind to grab Jihyo's hand again, pointing with her free one just as the red-and-white trim of their uniform blazer flashed between the branches of the treeline ahead.

The floor of the forest was surprisingly soft and loamy, muffling their steps and the already still air around them. They slunk through the tree trunks, crouching so low that Jihyo's back would definitely be punishing her for it later. Mina, meanwhile, was relentless, somehow able to keep tabs of their classmate so that he was always just in sight.

If Mina decided to tell Jihyo that she was actually a secret agent on a super confidential mission for the Japanese government, Jihyo wouldn't even bat an eyelash. Jihyo did, however, almost yell when she ran into Mina not five minutes later. The other girl whipped around and put a finger to her lips, before pulling Jihyo forward, right to the edge of the clearing Jihyo now realized they'd stopped at. The tree in the middle was much larger than Jihyo would ever expect, but the house sitting in between its branches was another sight entirely, practically glowing under the moonlight -- some unearthly mix of blue and white. 

Jihyo leaned over Mina's shoulder as close as she dared, mouth almost against the shell of the other girl's ear as she whispered, "He went up there?"

Mina nodded furiously, her ears bright red as she spun on her heel and ducked her head down, studiously avoiding Jihyo's stare. "We should go." She tugged at Jihyo's hand again until the latter followed her back the way they came, not slowing down until they reached the forest edge, the silhouette of the school building now larger than life against the late night sky.

"Mina," Jihyo said suddenly, pulling the hand in her own and forcing the other girl to a standstill. 

Mina finally faced her, cheeks flushed pink from the brisk walking they'd just done, Jihyo started to think. But then she paused. 

It was most likely the adrenalin: a familiar dose of impulsiveness not unlike the one rushing through her limbs the previous weekend when she'd randomly yelled for Chaeyoung to marry her in the middle of a spirited noraebang edition of "Black Cat Nero". 

(It had been an unfortunately sober decision on Jihyo's part, but she'd been the one to suggest the entire outing in the first place as a way for the entire group to bond outside of lunchtime and semi-clandestine meetings in the library's back study room. And Chaeyoung had gallantly taken the wildly off-base confession in stride; although Jihyo's knowledge of her tumblr account probably had more than anything else to do with the younger girl's tactful restraint from teasing her about it -- or, heaven forbid, selling it as blackmail material to Nayeon.)

"What is it?" Mina asked. And under the moon and stars -- under the sun, too, or even the stupid flickering fluorescent light in the corner of the library they had been forced to study in until all the other students had vacated at a more reasonable hour of the night -- under just _anything_ , Jihyo had noticed, Mina was the reason Jihyo hadn't needed to dream of better things in months.

So, Jihyo smiled. 

Mina tilted her head to one side. "Jihyo?"

"Be my girlfriend?"

-

"Hold on." Nayeon slammed both palms down on the lunch table, nearly upsetting Jeongyeon's salad bowl. "You mean that you finally got the sense to ask Mina out, and _I wasn't there to see it_?"

Jihyo lifted her left shoulder in what could barely pass as a shrug; Mina was resting her head very comfortably on her right, and she'd be loathe to disturb their current position. "It just sort of happened, unnie."

"Yeah, Jihyo finally got her girl. Congratulations," Jeongyeon drawled, though she did reach over to ruffle Jihyo's hair. "Now stop being gross in front of my salad."

Dahyun sent her an appreciative wink from across the table. "Good use of meme, unnie. And excellent delivery."

"I bet it was really cute though," Sana piped up from behind Nayeon's shoulder, as it was the older girl's turn that day to do the lap-sitting at their lunch table. "You know there's a saying in Japanese about how the moon looks beautiful at night, right?" Sana's eyes widened before she shot Mina a delighted grin. "Aw, Minari, did you plan that?"

"I definitely did not," Mina scoffed, lifting her head from Jihyo's shoulder and straightening in her seat. "We would've just gone back to our rooms if we didn't see Han Ahdul going out into the woods."

Chaeyoung raised a hand. "Right, let's go back to that. So you said that he has a _treehouse_?"

"But like..." Jihyo struggled to find the right words. "A weird one."

"We should go check it out then, right?" Tzuyu spoke up. "Probably before next Monday, when he goes back again."

Dahyun pointed an enthusiastic finger in her direction. "I like the sound of that." Her grin widened impossibly further. "Why not tonight? Mina-unnie and Jihyo-unnie can take us all there."

There was a beat of silence, and then eight pairs of eyes collectively turned to Momo.

Momo looked up, the last bite of Jeongyeon's salad hovering a centimeter from her mouth. "What?"

"We'll be out late at night, unnie," Chaeyoung explained patiently. "Dahyun-unnie and I will be fine since we don't live at school, but the rest of you have curfew."

Momo made a small noise of understanding, and then lowered her fork and cleared her throat. "What's curfew? I don't know any curfew."

And so, with their prefect's approval, the nine of them found themselves out in the woods much later that night, crouched in the bushes of the same clearing Jihyo and Mina had been at less than twenty-four hours before, staring up at the treehouse with something like awe.

"You're right," Jeongyeon finally said. "It's kind of weird."

"Like the feeling in your stomach after you eat some yogurt that might've been in the fridge for a day too long," Momo agreed.

"Well," said Sana lightly, "if you bothered to _share_ your yogurt, that sort of thing wouldn't happen."

Momo had no absolutely no qualms about shoving Sana for the comment. The brief tussle managed to push the both of them into full view of the clearing, and Dahyun took the opportunity to hop in after them. "Go go go!" And with a hand on each of their shoulders, successfully drove her unnies up the stairs to the treehouse, the others trailing behind. 

The steps were new enough that they didn't creak; the dull thuds of their feet against the wooden planks died away before they could even echo throughout the rest of the clearing. Of course, Sana tripped on the last step, but caught herself by almost smashing into the treehouse door. She glanced back at Momo, who shrugged, before turning to face forward again.

"I'm home," Sana mumbled in Japanese, twisting the knob. She felt a little better after she caught Mina's snicker from somewhere behind her. So she inched the door open the rest of the way and peeked inside.

Dahyun waited all of two seconds -- enough to see that the older girl hadn't gotten mauled by some extraterrestrial hullabaloo -- before popping past Sana and into the treehouse. Her eyes widened as she took in the scene before her. 

"Geez," Chaeyoung breathed as she came up beside Dahyun. "What _is_ all of this?"

Dahyun faintly registered the rest of the girls filling in the space around them. But none of them dared take many steps closer to the walls filled with glowing screens, the monitors appearing to be at least thirty years old. What looked like a satellite dish poked out of the back window, and keyboards labeled with foreign characters dotted the desks in front of them. To their right, a bulletin board stood by the door, tacked full of drawings and blueprints. A quiet high-pitched buzz surrounded them, the frequency just below the threshold of ear-piercing.

"Why does this look so...normal?" Jihyo frowned.

"But also not?" Jeongyeon finished.

"Beam me up, Scotty?" Dahyun finally managed to whisper.

"Fun fact, that quote was never actually said in any of the television episodes or the movies," Chaeyoung said immediately. But then she added, "Yeah, this is pretty crazy."

"Hey," Nayeon called from the bulletin board. "Isn't this a floor plan of the school?"

Sana sidled up to her girlfriend, peering at the notations scribbled onto the paper. "This doesn't look like Korean. Or Japanese, or English, or..."

Jeongyeon suddenly cleared her throat. "I think I found a timer." She stepped back from one of the computer screens, large white numbers blinking as they decreased, one by one.

"Maybe it's not Earth time," Jihyo suggested. "The rest of this stuff isn't even in any language we recognize, anyway." 

"It ticks down once every second," Mina murmured, pressing herself a little more firmly against Jihyo's back. 

Tzuyu pulled out her phone. "If that's true, then that timer will hit zero when..." She paused to type the numbers into the calculator, and then stared at the value her phone spat back at her. 

"What is it?" Chaeyoung craned her neck to glance at Tzuyu's screen.

"It's next Monday," said Tzuyu, quiet voice still somehow able to echo throughout the entire treehouse.

"Timers don't always have to be bad things," Momo said bravely. Then her eye caught something red peeking out of a pile of papers at the corner of a desk. She reached out, carefully tugging the sheet out from the mess.

"Maybe the timer doesn't mean anything," Jeongyeon agreed after a beat. She glanced over Momo's shoulder, eyes skimming over the blueprints in the other girl's hands. "But why does he have our school gymnasium circled in bright red?"

-

"Hirai Momo?"

Momo looked up from packing her bag, blinking the sleep out of her eyes -- she'd managed to avoid attracting Teacher Lee's attention, but she didn't need any of her classmates realizing she'd purposely stayed up past curfew to discover that one of said classmates was probably an alien.

Her eyes widened when she realized who was standing at her desk. "Oh." Her next words barely managed to keep from tumbling over each other. "Han Ahdul. Is there something I can help you with?"

"Momo?" Nayeon was suddenly beside her. "Come on, or else we'll be late for our next class."

"It's okay, unnie," Momo assured her, steadying her voice as she reached out to give the older girl's hand a brief squeeze. "Just have to do some prefect stuff."

Nayeon held her gaze for a moment, and then nodded. "Jeongyeon and Sana are outside already. We'll wait for you."

Momo flashed her a smile in thanks before turning back to the student in front of her. "So, what did you need?"

Han Ahdul looked at her for a few long seconds, and then shook his head. His movements were soft but precise, just like the way he spoke -- in a manner that reminded Momo of when she first arrived at this school and Korean still twisted itself in her mouth, folding her tongue into a clumsy knot unless she spoke slowly enough. "Nothing," he said. "It's not important."

"Okay." Momo nodded politely at him. "You know that I'm always here to help you if you need anything."

"Of course," Han Ahdul agreed. Then he smiled. "See you on Monday."

By the time Momo remembered to blink and breathe, he had already slipped out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to those who have been waiting...but one more chapter! "Soon"...


	6. E.T.

In Sana's professional opinion as the very best of Momo's friends, Momo was definitely shaken after emerging from the classroom; the poor girl drifted aimlessly behind an agitated and twitching Nayeon all the way to their next class. Which was why Sana was obligated, professionally, to send out a mass text to the rest of their friend group, calling an emergency meeting as soon as classes were over for the day.

Two hours later, the nine of them crammed into one of the larger study rooms situated at the back of the library, and it took Momo all of two minutes to tell them what had happened. It also took all of two minutes for Nayeon to begin marching for the exit, the soft soles of her shoes somehow still able to thud threateningly into the carpet with each step. 

The study room door swept halfway open before Jeongyeon managed to pry Nayeon's death grip off the knob. Jihyo and Sana rushed to loop their elbows under each arm, dragging the older girl back while Momo bowed apologetically to the handful of students seated at the tables outside who’d glanced up at the sudden disturbance.

"Just let me at him _once_ ," Nayeon insisted after Momo had shut the door again. "We can't just stand by when he literally went full creeper mode and told Momo he's _expecting_ her on Monday."

"It's okay, unnie." Momo grabbed one of Nayeon's clenched fists, rubbing her thumb soothingly over the knuckles. "It's not like what he said isn't going to come true, anyway."

"But it's _creepy_ ," Nayeon huffed. Still, she stopped straining against the hold Jihyo and Sana had on her.

Jihyo exhaled loudly, slipping her arms from around Nayeon's. "We'll deal with it when the time comes, unnie. There's no point in storming over to him and making a scene now."

"Exactly," Tzuyu said, arms crossed. "You should stop overreacting, unnie. It's not like he went up to Sana-unnie, or anything."

"I'd do it for any of you." Nayeon grumbled. Sana cooed, chasing her girlfriend’s reddened cheek until she was able to land a kiss. 

“We’re flattered.” Jeongyeon rolled her eyes. Jihyo nudged her, and she sighed. “But can we go back to the more pressing topic here? He’s probably planning something, and it seems like we don’t have very long to stop it. ”

“Maybe he circled the gym on the blueprints because that’s his favorite class,” Momo offered. "It doesn't have to mean anything sinister."

Dahyun blinked. "Unnie, would you mind pointing out exactly what, inside or outside of that treehouse, _wasn't_ sinister?"

Jihyo frowned. "Actually, isn't the school dance next Monday? In the gymnasium?"

"That's _another_ thing that's been making me mad." Nayeon crossed her arms. "Why in the world would anyone hold a dance on a _Monday_?"

"The official reason," Chaeyoung said, plastering a scarily peppy smile on her face, "is that the school administration wants to show us that weekdays can be just as fun as the weekends."

"Sounds like they just want a reason to end the party early," said Jeongyeon. "Which is fine with me. You never see people trashing the hallways _before_ midnight."

Nayeon scoffed. "You know you're not obligated to clean up every speck of dirt that isn't yours, right? Live a little, Yoo Jeongyeon." She gave the younger girl’s shoulder a sharp nudge. 

Jeongyeon yelped, rubbing the sore spot. “How is that you can shove so hard when you get winded after jogging only fifty meters?”

Dahyun cleared her throat. "Okay, unnies. And of course, my favorite dongsaengs." She turned to shoot finger-guns at Chaeyoung and Tzuyu. Chaeyoung gagged, and Tzuyu blinked exactly once. Dahyun answered them with a winning smile before continuing. "Let's review the facts."

"Alright," Jihyo said. "We know that Han Ahdul sneaks off campus and into the woods to visit his glowing treehouse every Monday night."

"Tuesday morning, technically," said Chaeyoung.

"Fact two," Jeongyeon chimed in, "he has the gymnasium circled in red on a copy of the school's blueprints. And fact three, he has a timer that seems to be counting down the seconds towards next Monday."

"More accurately, Tuesday morning," Chaeyoung said again. "Tzuyu forgot it was already Tuesday when she was doing the math."

Tzuyu shrugged. "You're the one who told me that the entire concept of time is just a human construct."

"Fact four," said Momo, "the school dance is next Monday night, in the gymnasium."

"And fact five," Sana finished, "Han Ahdul is definitely expecting us on Monday."

"Do you think he actually meant Tuesday?" Mina asked. Sana whipped around to stare at her, puppy-dog eyes speaking of nothing less than utter betrayal, while Chaeyoung jumped up and dashed over to give Mina a high-five. Mina laughed after the resounding clap, leaning comfortably into Jihyo's side once more as the younger girl skipped victoriously back to her seat.

Dahyun smacked her fist into her palm. "Whatever he means, we have to be ready for it during the dance. The entire school is going to be there, and if he's really planning something big for the gym, we need to figure out a way to stop him."

"And how exactly are we going to do that?" Jeongyeon pressed. "Do we look like some kind of extraterrestrial fighting force to you?"

"Maybe not," Sana piped up, "but maybe he'll be nice if we just talk to him."

“Sana,” said Jeongyeon reasonably, “this isn’t an episode of Naruto.”

"Sana-unnie is right, though -- we don't actually need to fight," Chaeyoung pointed out. "If we can just get everyone out of the gym before he tries to carry out his plan, we can worry about everything else after." 

Tzuyu nodded. "It shouldn't be that hard to evacuate an entire gymnasium of high schoolers. We just need to give them the right incentive, and any teachers chaperoning the event won't have any choice but to follow." 

Jihyo frowned. "Should we be worried that you two don't find that a challenging thing to do?"

"She's right, though," Nayeon said. "Just set off a stink bomb or something."

Jeongyeon made a face. "Gross."

"But effective." Dahyun gave the oldest girl a thumbs-up. "I like it. It should be easy enough to bring one in. And then Momo-unnie could make sure all the prefects help get everyone out, in case the teachers don't catch on fast enough."

"Alright then." Nayeon grinned. "Looks like we have a plan. Now we just have to wait for Monday."

Sana glared at Chaeyoung. "If you say 'Tuesday' one more time, I _will_ pull your tongue out."

Chaeyoung held both hands up. "Okay, okay, unnie." She paused. "But _two_ more times should be okay, right?"

Tzuyu dutifully lifted Dahyun up and set her down again, out of harm's way, just as Sana lunged. It didn't take more than ten seconds for the entire room to become a mess of shoved furniture and flying backpacks; Momo couldn't tell who was screaming and who was just trying to stay pressed against the walls, out of the fray.

At least the study room was soundproof.

-

On Monday, they all ended up waiting on Nayeon, despite the fact that Sana and Mina had already agreed to come over and get ready for the dance in Nayeon and Jihyo's room. Sana passed the time by trying on the heels the younger two had kicked off as Mina looked on, a little worried but mostly amused at Sana trying to figure out the intricate pattern of straps Jihyo's pair happened to have. Jihyo, meanwhile, tried not to stare too long at Mina, even though their hands were already in each other's, her pointer finger absentmindedly rolling one of the beads on Mina's bracelet.

Finally, Nayeon stood up from her seat in front of the mirror. She twirled once, grinning at the other three. "How do I look?"

"Hot," Sana immediately chirped. She ditched Jihyo's heels, skipping over barefoot so that they were a mere arm’s length apart. 

"I know _that_ ," Nayeon scoffed. Then Sana's hands were on her bare shoulders, thumbs rubbing soft circles. 

Sana leaned in, murmuring in her ear, "Really, unnie. You look perfect.”

“I should hope so,” Nayeon muttered. “I made you guys wait all this time.”

Sana shrugged. “And you really didn’t need to, but now you’re even prettier than before. So you have nothing to worry about, alright?"

Nayeon smiled softly. "Alright."

"Mina and I can leave," Jihyo said dryly from behind them. "Although I thought you two wouldn't be getting any ideas until _after_ the dance, at least."

Nayeon rolled her eyes. "You don't get to complain about skinship when you two have been literally attached at the hip since Mina came in."

Sana suddenly grinned, eyes glinting as she turned. One hand trailed slyly down Nayeon's arm, finally resting low on the older girl's hip. "Do you two want to know what I said just now?"

"Not even one syllable," was Jihyo's prompt reply, accompanied by Mina's face immediately reddening behind the blush already dusted on her cheeks.

Sana suddenly threw both arms around Nayeon's neck, tipping her own head dramatically backwards as she declared, "Oh, unnie, how your eyes twinkle, as if the stars themselves fell out of the sky and found a new home in the depths of your irises!"

"You're an idiot," said Nayeon, voice strained as she stumbled at the sudden shift in weight. "My smile is obviously my most charming feature." She finally managed to bring Sana's arms down, and hooked their elbows together instead. "Alright, you two. Let’s get going."

Jihyo and Mina fell into step behind the older girls as they made their way to the gymnasium. Mina squeezed Jihyo's hand.

Jihyo looked over. "Yeah?"

"Um," said Mina. She stared at Jihyo's feet, keeping in step as her eyes traced the zigzagging straps of the other girl’s heels. "I know Sana-unnie was trying to be overly cheesy, but." She took a deep breath, and her next words flew out in one rush of an exhale. "That's kind of what I think every time I look into your eyes."

The toe of Jihyo's left heel caught on the floor because she couldn't think to lift it high enough. Still, she managed to straighten before she tripped fully. Mina ducked her head even further, more than ready to speedwalk ahead. Luckily, her fingers were still threaded snugly between Jihyo's; Jihyo had no problem tugging her back and planting a soft kiss next to her ear. "Thank you, Minari."

"Hey, what took you guys so long?"

Somehow, they'd already arrived at the gym, apparently almost at the same time as Dahyun and Chaeyoung. 

Dahyun squinted at Sana and Nayeon, and then examined Jihyo and Mina. Her eyebrows raised. “Were you guys pre-gaming?”

Jihyo only stared, aghast, while Nayeon said mournfully, “I wish.” 

“Actually,” Chaeyoung chimed in, “you all look pretty normal except for Mina-unnie. She’s super flushed.”

Sana giggled as all eyes turned to the target in question. “Look, she’s getting even redder now!”

Jihyo glanced at her girlfriend, grinning widely. “Oh, she’s just embarrassed that -- ow.” Mina’s sharp elbow retracted itself from her ribcage, and she coughed a few times before straightening her expression. “Where are the others?” 

Chaeyoung jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “Jeongyeon-unnie’s at the DJ table, because the teacher in charge of the playlist for tonight forgot to charge his computer, and Chaeyoung -- the Park one, not me -- somehow convinced him to play a student’s playlist instead. They trust her to have the most school-friendly music taste, I guess.”

“Maybe we can just get the entire gymnasium to evacuate out of pure boredom, then,” Nayeon suggested brightly. And then made a strangled noise when Jihyo jabbed her in the ribs.

“Momo-unnie’s trying not to look like she’s having too much fun -- something about keeping up a proper prefect image,” Dahyun continued, “and we lost Tzuyu somewhere by the punch bowl. But I don’t think she’ll be that hard to spot -- ah.” Dahyun pointed towards the refreshments corner, where Tzuyu stood at least a head taller than the rest of the crowd. “Found her.”

“Hey, is that a photobooth?” Sana grabbed the hands nearest to hers -- Nayeon’s and Chaeyoung’s -- and began dragging them to the right. “Get everyone over here! We _have_ to take some pictures.”

It wasn’t hard to flag down Momo, who was desperately looking for a sufficient distraction to keep from going all-out to the surprisingly trendy J-Pop song now playing from Jeongyeon’s phone. She did join Chaeyoung and Dahyun in jumping up and down as frantically as their dresses and heels allowed, waving their arms until Jeongyeon came over out of concern and Tzuyu out of resigned bewilderment.

The line inched forward, and soon their group was next. Jihyo poked through the box of props. “What kind of theme were they going for, do you think?”

“My guess is beauty pageant,” Dahyun offered, pulling out a sash and crown.

“Or prep school athlete.” Chaeyoung held up a red-and-blue striped sweatband, trying not to think about whether it had been used before.

“Dress up like Jeongyeon? No thanks.” Nayeon plucked a sparkly plastic crown from the pile. 

“Next!” The photographer called. In a flurry of hasty costume picks and a general effort not to elbow anyone too hard, the nine of them managed to assemble themselves into two rows just before the cameraman got impatient and began snapping pictures anyway.

Sana was the first to the computer screen displaying the photos that had just been taken. The rest of them crowded around as she flipped through the files. 

“Wow, Mina-unnie looks so pretty!”

“You look pretty too, Dahyun. And, um, I like how you’re wearing your crown as an armband?”

“Momoring, you have your sash on backwards.”

“Shut up, Sana how would you even know -- oh, there were _words_ printed on the front.”

“Tzuyu, why does it look like you’re about to hit Chaeyoung with a tennis racket?”

“I’m pretty sure that was the photo right before she hit _me_ in the head.”

“You were blocking Chaeyoung, Nayeon-unnie. I just wanted you to squat down a little more.”

“Have you heard of _asking nicely_?”

“Hey.” Jeongyeon suddenly straightened. “Has anyone been keeping track of Han Ahdul? He was by the DJ table earlier, but I can’t find him anymore.”

After a moment, Tzuyu pointed. “There.” The rest of them followed her gaze just in time to catch a flash of a well-tailored suit slipping through the west entrance doors.

“Do we need to evacuate?” Dahyun already had one hand in her purse. “I’m ready when you are.”

Chaeyoung grabbed her wrist. “No, wait, we can follow him. There’s still time to figure out what he’s up to.”

“But what if we end up having to evacuate anyway?” Jihyo demanded. “At least one of us has to stay here to set off the -- I mean,” she glanced around before lowering her voice, “to create the _distraction_.”

“No worries.” Dahyun pulled her hand out of her purse just enough so the others could see the remote grasped between her fingers. “Bluetooth has an amazing range these days.”

“Nice,” said Tzuyu.

Chaeyoung let out one heavy exhale. “Okay, let’s go then?”

The group made their way over to the same entrance, sticking to the sides of the gymnasium as much as possible while they weaved through the crowd. Nayeon shouted a brief, “Bathroom!” at the baffled chaperone before they all tumbled out into the cool air of the now deserted hallway.

“We can get to the woods faster if we leave through the locker room,” Jeongyeon suggested. Then she paused, the echoing clatter of nine pairs of heels ringing in her ears. “Also, maybe we should all change into our gym shoes.”

“Good call.” Dahyun winced, already reaching down to tug at the tiny buckle of her heel. “I’m pretty sure I twisted my ankle back there, but then I twisted it back again right before we stopped.”

A few minutes later, Momo was the first one to burst through the locker room door leading straight to the outdoor croquet fields, the woods standing as still as ever in the distance. It was a different angle from where they’d come from previously, but Mina came up behind her once they’d reached the treeline and offered helpful nudges in the right direction. 

All too soon, they stood in the same clearing.

“Well, here we are,” Jeongyeon muttered. “In all its ominous, fluorescently glowing glory.”

“You first,” said Nayeon, and shoved Sana in front of her. 

Sana yelped, and then straightened with a huff. “I see that love means nothing to you.” She proceeded to drag Nayeon up the stairs, the rest of them following after. 

“Oh,” said Han Ahdul when Sana pushed the door open and peeked inside. “You came.”

“Your invitation was hard to refuse,” Chaeyoung said bravely. She hadn’t remembered the monitors along the far wall displaying anything in particular before, but the diagrams and characters flashing across the screens now certainly seemed like _something_.

“I thought I owed it to Momo-ssi since she was taking care of me so well all of a sudden,” Han Ahdul said mildly, typing away at one of the keyboards. “Which leads me to the conclusion that the nine of you have figured out that I’m not from around here.”

“Some of us have traveled farther than others,” said Sana carefully.

“Well.” He tapped one last key with some air of finality, and Chaeyoung noted a blinking red dot appear on the map displayed on the bottom right screen in the monitor array. “You won’t have to worry about me for much longer.”

“ ‘Won’t have to worry’ as in you’re leaving, or ‘won’t have to worry’ as in you’re going to obliterate this entire planet and all of us on it?” Dahyun asked, voice pitched uncomfortably higher than normal.

Han Ahdul turned in his seat, blinking at them. “Mostly the first, I should think. The collateral damage resulting from the homing beam should be minimal.”

“ ‘Homing beam’,” Dahyun said faintly. “He actually said ‘homing beam’.”

“Is that why you had the gym circled?” Jeongyeon’s eyes widened. “Is that where...where they’re going to pick you up? And what do you mean by ‘ _collateral damage_ ’?”

“You can’t do that,” Nayeon blurted. “The entire _school_ is in the gym right now.”

“Your school population is just below nine hundred,” Han Ahdul answered. “With respect to the billions of humans on this planet, the collateral damage is indeed minimal.”

Jihyo’s jaw dropped. “That’s still _nine hundred people_.” She stepped forward, fists clenched at her sides. “You can’t _do_ that.”

“I will admit that the situation isn’t ideal.” His brow creased slightly. “But for all the intelligence I gathered upon arriving on Earth, as well as my copious amount of preparatory research, I was completely taken by surprise when the dance was scheduled for a Monday.”

Nayeon threw her hands up. “Someone finally understands, and he doesn’t even _go here_.”

Mina murmured something, and Momo nudged her. The younger girl cleared her throat before speaking up. “Can’t you just adjust the target location?”

He frowned. “I’ve tried, of course, but the software is malfunctioning. The computer will no longer broadcast updated coordinates no matter what I do.”

“Probably because you’re trying to pair a satellite dish with equipment that’s clearly from the 1980s,” Chaeyoung scoffed. When even Dahyun turned to stare at her, she coughed. “What I mean is, I can probably help with that.”

“I don’t think that would be wise,” Han Ahdul said. “There won’t be enough time for me to teach you even the basics of this code, much less how to operate it.”

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes. “Look, I don’t care if your operating system is from _Pluto_. That won’t be a problem.”

Han Ahdul blinked. “Being from Pluto would be inconceivable. That piece of rock is such a barren wasteland, even you humans have the sense not to call it a planet.”

“I wish everyone would just leave Pluto alone,” Momo mumbled under her breath. 

Tzuyu tapped her on the shoulder. “Unnie, you should say something.”

Momo frowned. “About Pluto?” 

“ _No_ ,” Tzuyu hissed, “about convincing him that Chaeyoung can help him.”

Momo blinked. “What? Why me? I can’t say anything no one else hasn’t said already.”

“Just try,” the younger girl insisted. “You’ve talked to him the most. That still means something, even if you both know that it was forced.”

Momo made a face. “I’ve barely had a full conversation with him.” 

“Unnie,” Tzuyu said quietly. “The worst thing that will happen is going to happen anyway.”

“Thanks for the optimism.” Momo let out a long breath. “Fine.” She stepped past Sana, trying for a smile. “Hey, Ahdul-ssi.”

He directed his gaze at her. “While your grades in precalculus and physics are acceptable, I doubt you would be able to help either, Momo-ssi.”

Momo shook her head vigorously. “That’s not what I meant. Look, Chaeyoung is… she’s good with this stuff, okay? She can hack into the school’s security system, and she can -- she somehow wired up a stink bomb to receive a Bluetooth signal? And I’ve only known her for a month or two, but I _know_ she was behind the April Fool’s joke when the school’s WiFi network name changed to ‘Dabbing in 2k18’. So…” She lifted her arms up, gesturing helplessly. “You know what I mean, right?”

Han Ahdul stared at the circle she’d curled her fingers into. He blinked once, twice. He turned to Chaeyoung. “You have ten minutes and twenty seconds.”

He barely had time to scoot his chair back before Chaeyoung practically dove at the keyboards. The timer they’d spotted less than a week ago still counted down the seconds in the same large, impassive numbers beside her head.

Dahyun bounded forward too, but stopped just behind the other girl. She raised her fist up like it was a microphone and begin speaking into it. “Alright folks, fifteen seconds in and she’s overridden whatever alien language there was before -- sorry, no offense, Ahdul-ssi. And now words are scrolling by super fast and were the movies right all along? Because the screen basically looks like a classic hacker scene and even _I_ am impressed.”

Chaeyoung suddenly threw her fist up in the air. 

Dahyun jumped back, clapping. “We have our first fist pump, ladies and gentleman! And oh -- there she goes crawling under the desk -- hopefully her parents won’t ever have to see the state of her dress after this. I see wires, I see wires, I see more wires, and -- Chaeng, are you okay?”

Chaeyoung rubbed the back of her head where she’d bumped it against the underside of the table, but then gave a thumbs-up before resuming her work.

“And we’re off _again_! The clock is ticking, everyone, and we have exactly seven minutes and fourteen seconds and counting -- oh, and we are back at the computer! She’s typing some numbers in -- does anyone know what coordinates those are? I guess it doesn’t matter, as long as it doesn’t land near the school -- “

Chaeyoung practically punched the Enter key as she executed the last line of code. “Done!”

“Did she do it?” Dahyun spun Chaeyoung around and forced the younger girl to look her in the eyes. “Did you do it?”

Chaeyoung grinned. “I did it.”

All eyes turned to Han Ahdul. He remained focused on the bottom right screen, where the red dot had moved a few centimeters to the west. Finally, he nodded.

“ _You did it!_ ” Dahyun pulled Chaeyoung into a crushing hug. 

“Where did you move it to?” Jihyo asked. 

“Oh yeah, about that.” Chaeyoung extracted herself from Dahyun’s arms. “We might want to get out of this forest pretty soon.”

“Okay, nice meeting you, bye now.” Nayeon grabbed Sana’s hand and dragged her out the door, followed closely by Jeongyeon and Tzuyu, and then the others.

After the sudden flurry of footsteps, Momo was the last to leave. She hesitated for just a second, before turning to give Han Ahdul a smile. “Have a safe trip.”

“Thank you,” he said. And then Momo was over the threshold and down the rickety wooden stairs. 

The nine of them made one last mad dash through the woods, not stopping until they tumbled onto the familiar, meticulously well-manicured lawn. Nayeon immediately collapsed onto the grass, pulling Sana down with her. 

Nayeon knew that her sneakers were muddy, her dress torn in a dozen places, makeup smeared beyond redemption, and there was at least one branch caught in the hair she’d curled so carefully just hours before. But then Sana glanced over, one corner of her lips quirking up, eyes forever twinkling. “Hey there unnie, do you come here often?”

Jeongyeon groaned as she flopped down beside them. “I don’t know if I’m cringing at how bad that pickup line was, or how cute the two of you still are.”

Chaeyoung gasped. “Look!”

They scanned the night sky, immediately catching onto one star that was beginning to grow larger than the others. No one spoke, waiting with bated breath as the object hovered closer and closer.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jihyo whispered. “That’s a _real_ flying saucer.”

“And we actually get to see it.” Dahyun sniffed, wiping a tear from her eye. “Dreams do come true.”

Suddenly, a bright beam shot out from the bottom of the saucer. Nine pairs of eyes squinted against the sudden light, barely catching a glimpse of a small speck floating up inside the beam. Then it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. 

The saucer spun once, twice, and then floated slowly into the stars once more. Silence fell, and a gentle breeze picked up.

Tzuyu wrinkled her nose. “Does it smell like something’s burning?”

“I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t stay in the treehouse,” said Momo.

“We did it,” Sana breathed. “We did it. We actually did it.” Her grin widened. “We saved the world!”

“Or at least the high school,” Jihyo agreed.

Jeongyeon nudged Momo in the shoulder. “That was cool, what you did back there. I didn’t think he’d actually listen to you.”

“Yeah,” Nayeon chimed in. “What was that hand gesture you did? Is that some kind of alien thing?” Her eyes widened. “Are _you_ an alien?” 

“Of course not!” Momo scoffed. “If any one of us is an alien, it has to be Mina.”

“ _What_?” Mina scrambled to her feet.

“You’re right, Momo,” Sana said, solemn. “She’s way too perfect.”

Jihyo patted Mina’s knee, expressionless. “It’s true.” And then screamed when Mina shoved her into the grass.

“Having fun, ladies?” 

The nine of them froze.

“Oh, uh, Headmaster.” Momo grinned nervously. “Good evening.”

-

In the end, Chaeyoung figured they’d gotten off pretty lightly, punishment-wise. True, Momo was no longer a prefect, but the older girl looked so giddy at the fact that no one had the heart to feel sorry for her. 

Otherwise, there was just a week of detention that Sana and Tzuyu were going to attend anyway -- whether as a willing participant or an unwilling proctor -- and another week of cleaning up after the last gym period. The coach at least liked Jeongyeon, which meant that the nine of them got away with things like dumping Nayeon into a cart of used towels and pushing her all the way to the locker room, or borrowing some of the practice mallets and balls and pretending like more than one of them could actually play croquet.

Dahyun poked Chaeyoung in the shoulder. “Hey, slacking already?” 

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes, wrapping the cord of a hair dryer around its handle before setting it back in its proper drawer. “You can’t give me a moment to think about how this school is so rich, we practically have a salon in the girls’ locker room?”

“I’m pretty sure the boys have it all too,” Dahyun said seriously. “There’s no way Jackson-oppa gets his hair like that otherwise.”

Chaeyoung let out a chuckle. She glanced through the open door of the locker room; the rest of the cleanup crew had moved out into the hallway, Momo getting ready to race Jeongyeon and see who could push their mops all the way down to the drinking fountain the fastest. Tzuyu had somehow been roped into being the referee, but she’d apparently convinced Jihyo to be the one to shout “start”. 

Nayeon arrived on the sidelines just in time to grab the towel draped over the top of her head and lob it at Jeongyeon, who ducked and let the projectile whip Momo in the face instead. Sana dove forward, smothering the other girl in a hug as she apologized profusely for her “beautiful girlfriend”. Mina somehow materialized beside Jihyo, apparently just to shoot the other second-year a glare, as if daring her to try saying something even remotely as sappy; Jihyo, for her part, just smiled and slipped her hand in Mina’s before turning her attention back to the starting line.

“Let me guess,” Dahyun said smugly, throwing an arm around Chaeyoung. “This is happiness, right?”

Chaeyoung laughed, wrapping her own arm around Dahyun’s waist before the two of them walked towards the open door, the commotion already echoing off the hallway walls sure to land them at least another day of detention. 

“Yeah,” she said. “This is definitely happiness.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for sticking with me til the end, guys; i know it's been a while TT despite all the stress this fic will always lowkey give me, i'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and i'm glad i was able to share this weird alien boarding school experience with all of you :D
> 
> happy third anniversary, twice, and here's to many more!


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